All posts by A. David

controversy, cultural

New Charlie Hebdo Threats, Outrage

Image by Osama Hajjaj (@osamacartoons)

Just two weeks ago, the online English-language French news site The Local reported on a new “series of death threats” aimed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo via their Facebook page. The French satirical magazine made worldwide headlines when nine of its editorial staff were killed in 2015 in a terrorist attack spurred on by their portrayal of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Sacred & Sequential explored this event in previous posts.

These latest threats, though, serve not only as reminders of an ongoing peril but also highlight the more recent content from Charlie Hebdo, including the disturbing cartoon of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy, growing up to be a lech (also covered by The Local). Has Charlie Hebdo remained on task and undeterred by their tragedy or, conversely, are they continuing to engage in objectionable, detestable cartooning?

Queen Raina of Jordan had her own response to Charlie Hebdo‘s depiction of Aylan:

articles and essays, from the Internet

“This is the Avengers, not the God Squad!” (Sequart.org)

(The following article by Mario Ribeiro first appeared at Sequart.org on 5/5/2016 as “They Were Lost in Space-Time and Then They Found God.” It is presented here with his permission.)

Written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Al Milgrom, the Lost in Space-Time saga ran from West Coast Avengers #17 to 24. The real meat is between 18-23, with the others serving as a prologue and an epilogue. Now, before we go any further, keep in mind that this was published in 1987. For modern readers, mainstream superhero comics from the eighties, with very few exceptions (Moore, Miller, Morrison) are old-fashioned and childish with terrible writing (exclamation points, thought balloons, tons of exposition, obvious plots, unrealistic dialogue) and crude, ugly, lazy art. Vanilla heroes fighting cardboard villains, with no depth or subtlety. They are silly, I get it, that’s exactly how we felt back in the eighties about Silver Age comics and that’s how readers in 2046 will feel about today’s comics. But, whenever they come from, if we accept them on their terms we can often find incredible beauty in execution and ideas.

Accepting them on their own terms doesn’t mean accepting them unconditionally. Lost in Space-Time has many flaws, and I won’t enumerate them all. Suffice to say that the first issue (17) is pretty bad, even for its time. The text clashes with the art more than once, one of the villains is Cactus (“he causes fear in every other living thing”) and the main plot is basically filling till the last three pages, when the real story actually begins.

But, before we move forward, we must provide some context. The West Coast Avengers, lovingly called Whackos, consisted of newlyweds Hawkeye (the group’s chairman) and Mockingbird, plus Iron Man, Tigra and Wonder Man. Hank Pym, looking for redemption after the Trial of Yellowjacket storyline, didn’t join the team, but lived in the compound in civilian capacity, doing scientific research and some house-keeping. The Thing and Espirita (then still called Firebird) were candidates for the sixth slot, but neither joined the team.

What is missing from the first 16 issues is the big concept. It is a good read, but the fights against uneventful villains like Ultron, Master Pandemonium and Graviton are not that exciting. Still, Englehart and Milgrom do wonders with their characters, particularly Wonder Man, Tigra and Hank Pym. Wonder Man finds the confidence to be a real hero when he overcomes his fear of death; Tigra finds confidence and a tail as her personalities are merged and she regains control of herself; and Hank sees no other choice but to kill himself. And then it’s time for the big concept.

Continue reading “This is the Avengers, not the God Squad!” (Sequart.org) →

events

“Comics & Sacred Texts” Event This Friday!

comics and sacred text scheduleOn Friday, May 6th, Haverford College is hosting a day-long “Comics & Sacred Texts” symposium in conjunction with their “Reading Comics and Religion” course, the Israeli Cartoon Museum’s Bible Stories in Comics exhibit, and the forthcoming Sacred Texts and Comics: Religion, Faith, and Graphic Narratives edited collection:

The symposium will engage Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions, together with explorations of the superhuman body. The invited panelists will draw from their own disciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspectives—including religion, literature, theology, gender studies, art history, cultural theory, and anthropology—to energize a lively discussion about representations of the sacred in graphic narratives.

Planned speakers include S&S’s very own A. David Lewis, Elizabeth Coody, Scott Elliott, and Ken Koltun-Fromm, as well as many, many more; live-tweets will be tagged as #sacredcomics for those who cannot attend in person.